As a Catholic artist in a time when creativity has been changed by artificial intelligence, Ruth Stricklin is committed to creating art in a way that honors the human artist’s role in preparing the visual beauty that helps others contemplate and pray. Ruth did not pursue formal artist training to become a painter. Instead, her professional path has been “an education that God has just delivered” when he called her to study sacred art. Her workflow for projects like the illustrations in Ascension’s upcoming Second Edition of the Liturgy of the Hours is unique, personal, and defined by her faith and professional vocation. Here’s a glimpse into Ruth’s process.
A Prayerful Beginning
From start to finish, Ruth models a truly Catholic way of creating art. “I really rely on prayer for every part of the process in whatever I'm working on.” Her work begins with a prayer to the Holy Spirit, oftentimes, the version by St. Augustine. When overwhelmed, she finds consolation in starting off by repeating the surrender prayer refrain: O Jesus, I surrender myself to you, take care of everything.
“That one takes the pressure off, totally,” she explains. “But I also just sometimes talk to God during my work. This puts me in the zone where I believe the work is a prayer. I offer it to God before I start and while I’m working. I sense it’s a deep kind of nonverbal prayer where he is in every moment with me.”
Ruth experiences the grace of these prayers at times in her creative process, whether through the ability to focus intensely, an unexpected new idea, or an “I didn’t just draw that!” moment––the feeling that she is only the hand holding the pen or paintbrush to accomplish the work of a much more capable Artist.
Ruth asks the saints to be present to her artistic practice, too. “I’ll pray to any saint I’m painting. I’ll just ask, ‘please help me, please help me paint you accurately.’ It’s great because I always get to learn about new saints that way. I feel like we get new relatives!”
Creating something beautiful to glorify God often takes a village, both in a spiritual sense and in an earthly sense of the word. While she designed the illustrations for Ascension’s Liturgy of the Hours collection, Ruth benefitted from the help of her heavenly team and from those closest to her. Her husband, Geoff, her spiritual director, and other mentors provide helpful insight to her work. Additionally, Ruth relies on the prayers of many others.
“It's felt like a real community process: people praying for us––lots of religious communities. They don't all know what they're praying for, but we’ve asked them, ‘just pray for us, please.’"
Beauty that Blends the Catholic East & West
A Catholic creative does not need to wonder where to look for inspiration. The question “What does the art of the Catholic Church already give me?” always leads to plenty of answers.
“The Church has given us so much … it’s such a rich treasure house.”
Ruth’s artistic vision is rooted in the Church’s tradition of breathing with both lungs (as St. John Paul II once said). Both Western and Eastern Catholic art inspire her plans for paintings very early on. The rich Catholic heritage of Byzantine art iconography informs her work––visible at a glance in how she depicts faces, halos, hand positions, and decorative elements in her illustrations for the Liturgy of the Hours.
“When I start a piece, I always look to iconography first. I believe that’s the most ancient tradition of our Church. There, everything is in the right place, everything is just as it should be, and I need to learn from it.”
As Ruth has learned, there is meaning behind even some of the smallest details––bushes, or trees, or other smaller elements in an icon––and she intentionally preserves such symbolism. Why reinvent the wheel or seek novelty when the tradition of the Catholic Church already provides rich inspiration?
Research into medieval illuminated manuscripts also guides the early stages of Ruth’s work, influencing her creative decisions for layout and detail. One of her major influences is Fra Angelico, an early Renaissance religious who worked on manuscripts and wall frescoes of Christ, Our Lady, and the saints.
Magnificent Designs for the New Divine Office
Ruth shares a glimpse into her method for creating the illustrations that will be included in the second edition of the Liturgy of the Hours. She believes that human inspiration is irreplaceable for creating beautiful works that illuminate the faith, so she creates her designs by hand. Later in the process, industry-level digital tools help Ruth complete what’s on paper, allowing her to block things in, move elements around, add text, create borders, and much more.
While computers can supply artistic abilities, they cannot provide the unique heart, mind, and soul behind what’s being created. The person of the human artist is an important part of the process of creating sacred art, which is specifically meant to reflect the beauty of God made incarnate in Christ and his Church. With this in mind, and referring specifically to the designs she provided for Ascension’s Liturgy of the Hours, Ruth explained,
“I really am hand drawing things in the sketch. The sketch is kind of a way for me to connect with pen and paper. This is an opportunity to show that AI is not where it’s at when it comes to beauty and sacred art. There’s a mind behind God’s creation, and he gives that to us as artists too. The soul and mind can be influenced by the Holy Spirit. AI can’t––it’s influenced by other things.
So I really wanted to hand draw everything first. And then I put it into Photoshop and I use digital tools to clean it up and then I'll hand draw with my stylus on my screen. That helps in the process of cleaning it up and making it print ready. Then I submit it and I get feedback from Ascension.”
Ruth is continually learning through every project she is commissioned to do. Her journey as an artist has been “an education that God has just delivered.” Creating these illustrations for the Liturgy of the Hours meant pivoting from the colorful, larger-than-life wall murals that she specializes in to sketching these smaller illustrations with white pencil on black paper.
“It's a completely different kind of art. Normally I can rely on color to separate figures or draw attention to certain elements. This is all black and white. In fact, I sketched on black paper to start with, because it forced me to see black and white as both equal in value ... So that was a huge learning curve.”
Although working with this medium and color scheme was a new task for her, Ruth came to love the process. Her intricate designs are certain to bless all who pray the Liturgy of the Hours with this new collection.
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